Getting from A to B: 10 Tips For Getting Through The Day

By Janice Wells

“Hurry up, don’t dawdle, get your shoes, let’s go!”

Is getting your kids to move through the day’s activities stressing out everyone in the family? You’re definitely not alone – but the good news is that transition troubles can improve with parental help.

What Parents Can Do

As a first step, assess the situation at hand. Then, depending on your child’s reaction, mix and match the following tips to help your child successfully reach any point in a "personal best" time:

Explain the big picture. In the morning, give kids an idea of what the rest of the day will be like, advises Mimi Doe, author of Busy But Balanced: Practical and Inspirational Ways to Create a Calmer, Closer Family. You can say, “Tina, you will have school today, then lunch with me, shopping in the early afternoon and then the rest of the afternoon to do what you’d like.”

Provide several timely updates. Give children clear warnings as the time for departure or transition becomes closer. For example, “Sam, it’s lunchtime now, and we will be going to Grandma’s house soon after. If you begin building a castle now, you may need to finish it when we get back.”

Define responsibilities. Tell your child specifically what he needs to do now for the next activity: get his coat to go to Grandma’s house, clear his crayons from the table so there’s room to bake cookies, etc. Praise or thank him when he follows through.

Set limits. Give a five- to 15-minute warning and set a timer so your child can hear when she needs to move on. Or, if she’s watching a TV program, tell her that at the end of the show, it will be time to go. If she’s playing a game, let her know at what point in the game she’ll need to stop.

Make it a game. “Sometimes we’d walk backward down the driveway, clap hands or quack like a duck,” mom Nancy Curry says of some of the games she tries to keep her 2-year-old on track. Kids can hop like bunnies to find their shoes, dance to the front door or tiptoe all the way to the car. Older kids can have fun racing.